Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er “Jenn”
Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Jenn, a magazine minion who claims that Midtown Lunch may be responsible for her current state of employement…
Name: Jenn
Age: 22
Occupation: Magazine Publishing Minion
Where in Midtown do you Work?: 43rd & 6th Ave.
Favorite Kind of Food: The foods I inhale the most often fall into or across the following gastronomic categories: Spicy, Asian, Deep-fried, MEAT+BREAD, Molten Cheese, Foods That Can Be Eaten While Walking, Anything Topped With a Fried Egg, and Stinky Lunches That Cubicle Neighbors Secretly Complain About (sorry!). More specifically: cheeseburgers, hot dogs with everything on them (two Gray’s, one to eat on the spot, one for the walk home), cheesesteaks wit onions, carnitas tortas, prosciutto-mozzarella heroes, fried pork dumplings, sweetbreads, bi bim bap, okonomiyaki, lox with extra capers, rice balls, paratha rolls, sardines and rice, soon dobu, pa jun, breakfast burritos, mushroom pizza (with the canned slice mushrooms), potato/corn chips, charcuterie, ma po tofu, bento boxes, strong curries, sushi and ahi poke, banh mi, little onion rings, Difara’s, fideua, crab cake sandwiches, stinky cheese, fried oysters, shawarma kebabs with extra hot sauce, English breakfasts and Chinese food from my parents’ restaurant and my grandma. Also can’t forget condiments because with just a slather or a drizzle can make all the difference– favorites include: Sriracha, Dijon mustard, Chiu Chow chili oil, cocktail sauce, and garlic mayo.
Least Favorite Kind of Food: Garden salads and raw celery
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: $5 bento boxes (especially the salted mackerel), inari, green tea beard papas and rice balls from Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) I’m a slave to my mid-afternoon rice ball break addiction. Tuna Avocado over rice at Chiyoda (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) when I’m feeling un-poor, paratha rolls and chicken biriyani from the Biriyani Cart (on 46th & 6th), ma po tofu or roast pork over rice at Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th), oyako don from Yagura (also on 41st btw. Mad+5th), veg combo from Minar (on 46th btw. 6+7th), Cubans and chicken sandwiches from Margon (on 46th btw. 6+7th), mini cheeseburgers with a pint of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout from Stout NYC on 33rd btw. 6+7th (more of a Happy Hour Meal). The day I had a mentaiko rice ball and miso soup from Washoku (on 37th btw. Mad+5th) for $2 was a very, very good day.
“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Pret, Hale & Hearty, Red Flame on 44th btw. 5+6th (A company favorite for impromptu lunch meetings, the Red Flame Wrap with chicken, cheese, and honey dijon is way better than expected).
Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Since I’m a relative Midtown working noob, I’ll have to credit Zach for almost all the places I go to–he’s been my gastronomic guru from the start. But the first time I put my Midtown intel to use was when I got a Cuban from Margon the day before my interview for the job I hold now. I was unemployed and disillusioned, gazing longingly at the 9-5ers, wondering when I, too, could have health insurance and business casual street meat. Lo and behold, the next day, I got the job and my first post, detailing the meal, had gone up on Serious Eats New York. Clearly, I owe my current state of employment to Midtown MAGIC.
If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Honolulu because it’s a floating smorgasboard of the best Asian food. I’d gorge on ahi poke, sushi, Korean plate lunches, loco moco, malasada, linguica, garlic shrimp, Spam musubi, manapua, fried saimin, teriyaki burgers, Puka dogs, and open-faced avocado sandwiches (take a slice of toast, top with a buttery Hawaiian avocado cut into big thick slabs, and sprinkle with sea salt)– all while perfecting my island tan. If you’re not convinced yet, just check out Kathy YL Chan’s blog, and start drooling.
Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Sake Bar Hagi (on 49th btw. 6+7th) has become my favorite post-work bar for the cheap drinks and awesome izakaya goodies. There’s Blarney Stone, Rudy’s for the free hot dogs…but, Midtown Lunchers– any more suggestions for good cheap drink/food spots? (Aside from the ones posted on the Midtown Lunch happy hour column.)
Totally agree about the Sake Bar Hagi. One of my favorite paces in Midtown… shame it’s not open for lunch. Mamacita… we may need to hit that up soon for a Happy Hour post! Got any recommendations for Jenn? Feel free to post them in the comments.
And as always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, or you’d like to nominate somebody in your office email me at zach@midtownlunch.com.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 12:15 pm, February 17th, 2009 under PROFILE: Midtown Lunch'er.
86 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
86 Comments
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Whatever Chuck. I find it fascinating that an Amused over at the Feedbag and an Amused her at Midtown Lunch both have taken to championing the same degenerate, using the same sort of language he uses. I suppose Zack is the only one who’ll ever know.
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I bet the guy in the photo is Larry Bird
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basketball player?
my money was on dwarf bowler, attaining a firm grip
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OMG blog comment drama. With sockpuppets. Lives can be obtained that-a-way————>
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@zach and disregarding the rest of this nonsense: that place is good and cheap? it always looked expensive to me, and then there was the whole problem of the roaches i would notice waltzing out of sapporo in the morningtime.
oh, and one of those links is wrong? this one: “my first post, detailing the meal, had gone up on Serious Eats New York.” is going to http://midtownlunch.com/blog/2009/01/20/washoku-cafes-official-grand-opening-is-today/ and confusing me.
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ben
I admit that your bizarre conspiracy theories and fixation on DocNut are mildly amusing but not much else about your work is. Your attempts at witty comebacks are unbelievably pathetic, dude. “Fuck meet you?” That’s more than sad.
I don’t know when your mom gets home from work, but why not fire up a doobie and chill out some. You need it. Don’t forget to put a towel in the crack in the basement door.
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@blondie – shit. was supposed to go here:
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thank you darling
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Amused has posted as DocChuck once before
Ava Dart posts as DocChuck on this site all the time, and has also posted those “The DocChuck who posts on this site is not the real DocChuck” posts as well…. under the name “Gertrude”
Don’t worry folks, accounts with required sign in are coming in the next few months… that will put this username thing to bed.
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Amused, DocChuck, Ava Dart are the same effing person, as I’ve been trying to say. Excuse me for getting pissed off, but this shit is annoying.
Just for clarity, what about Sarah Hellerman?
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Oh shut up Ben. Do you see what you’ve done? All your fucking whining now has Zach imposing log-in rules. Which will only decrease commenting. Grow some already.
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@Ben – The original Sarah Hellerman is long gone. I think that person only shilled once. The person who posts now as Sarah Hellerman is only making fun of that original person… and that person also posts as a hamster and various other comedic personalities.
@Mamacita – It shouldn’t decrease commenting… it just means that you will have to go through the process of signing up every single one of your aliases! :-)
Listen… this site is all supposed to be in good fun. Nobody should be taking any of this seriously. The sign in may not happen. We’ll see…
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I agree.
I have ‘ Angela’ from the zen burger revue stuffed and mounted over the billiard room hearth.
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Did someone say nuts??
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Oh, and just for the record… Amused and Doc Chuck are not the same person. The person who posted as Amused today, posted as Doc Chuck once in the past. There are probably 10 Doc Chuck’s. In theory, the sign in will be so that there is one person for every alias. And once you register that name, it’s yours… so that we don’t get 5 people posting as Doc Chuck.
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I bid £5 for stevenp.
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Then I’m claiming DocChuck as a login at the onset and promptly burning the password.
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Precisely, how are you going to make sure those that don’t use aliases are gonna get their own moniker? Sounds like much ado about nothing. Squeaky wheel and all that.
Whoever gets Bossman better represent…… don’t be screwing up the rep ;-)
Don’t be screwing up my rep. -
Oh, and shouldn’t you be drunk by now mamacita? Happy hour’s almost over you know.
You guys are totally off: The guy with Jenn is a basketball player at Seton Hall, and she’s a nice 5’2″.
Mamacita@1:43pm – Sorry, you’re in line behind me, and I’m not allowing you to cut ahead!!! And Wayne, you DON’T get to watch. You’d never recover your self-esteem. ;)